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This is a great idea, and well pitched, but it's not the first time I've seen it. Therefore it all comes down to _execution_. Since there's no real technical info or even an explaination of who's making it and why (is it a commercial thing? What's the business angle?), it feels pretty pointless.

If it ever does appear as more than a product pitch, I'll be really keen to find out more. But for now it just seems like someone's put the cart (a beautiful website) in front of the horse (an actual product)!

Under "Features":

> If you can dream it, you can do it.

Yes, the website has giant images and minimalism and everything that's all the rage recently, but in the end all it does is make me scroll endlessly and hunt for the tiniest bits of information. There are multiple full-screen-spaces that only show fancy monitors and marketing speak.

I really like the idea of this small computing device that basically turns into whatever you need it to be, but I'm still not sure about what's the use case exactly with phones that turn into desktop PCs. I could have a big screen and bluetooth peripherals at home, fine. But when I'm traveling there's no way to know where I'll be able to switch to "desktop mode" again. At the hotel, hoping I can attach my HDMI cable to the wall-mounted TV? At a friend's house - and then what, maybe they only have a laptop or they'd rather not have me rip out their cables and use their monitor. At work where I don't get to use my own hardware?

I think that ASUS Transformer concept makes more sense on the hardware side. I remember this one device where you'd have a phone, put it into a tablet, and then attach a keyboard effectively turning it into a laptop.

The only interesting thing about this is exactly what you said, the execution. It's a custom Android (with Debian added to it somehow... containerized maybe?) so they'll either need to make their own hardware or partner up with someone. Or maybe it's just someone's Android custom ROM project.

Looks like they have support for the nexus 5: http://maruos.com/#/hardware
I clicked "Get Maru" and signed up for the mailing list hoping that granted me access. They have a beta version for Nexus 5 but that's it. I unsubscribed and noted that I thought their execution was poor and that they wasted my time.
That lean start up culture
TBH, I'm not even sure it's a great idea at the time of writing, as such. The few technical details they mention seem to indicate that it's some kind of VM running on your phone. This brings a bunch of limitations with it; I use my desktop not only for the nice screen, but also the i7 processor, 1TB+ SSD, ridiculous amounts of RAM and gigabit network card. So assuming the VM guess is correct, you're getting a 5+ year old PC in your pocket.

I suspect there are some people who could make great use of something like this, but I don't think it's for me. If it truly solved the multiple device problem in a perfect way, it'd be a different story. As it is, I suspect it's a lot more niche than the marketing says.

This looks like a concept based around Debian Chroot. There are several apps on the app store that will install a copy of debian in a chroot inside of android, and then when it boots, you can connect to the desktop via vnc.

Here's one app called "Complete Linux Installer" (looks outdated) that does this: https://goo.gl/5ryu5x

It certainly works, though there has definitely been limitations caused by the speed of the hardware and the latency that vnc introduces. I've never tried this on an external monitor and external input devices. There's also a gap because you need a separate vnc client.

Maru, if it exists, seems to work off the same concept, but with some polish. They have an install of Debian that can run on your phone. The Maru app will run in the background and detect when an external display is connected. This tells it to spin up the debian OS. Then it must do something to connect to debian's desktop (vnc, nomachine, or proprietary solution), and output that solely to the secondary screen.

This last bit seems the most magical to me (and probably device dependent), but then again, my experience with android and secondary displays is somewhat limited to the mirroring that happens when you attach a monitor. Alternatively is the chromecast concept where your app turns into a control and the content is sent to the chromecast. Maybe the concept of running an app entirely on a second display is a native android concept these days.

Looks like there's a Presentation class [1] for activities meant to run on a second display. Also see [2], a presentation about it that mentions HDMI displays explicitly.

[1]: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Presentat...

[2]: http://www.slideshare.net/ph0b/develop-for-miracast-on-andro...

Not so magical. Google "headless vnc server".
The key innovation in Windows Phone's "Continuum" feature is that the desktop is just another view into the phone. You can access the same exact apps and user data - browser, mail, calendar, messaging, etc. - and switch back and forth without losing state. In that world, a phone with KVM support doesn't just save you from owning a PC; it saves you from having to keep track of a different set of installed apps, setting up accounts, preferences, and state (currently open tabs, documents, etc.)

I'd welcome something like that for Android, especially as Google is experimenting with support for windowed Android apps with mouse support.

Unfortunately, Maru is not that. It appears to only run X11 apps on the desktop, and only Android apps on the phone. I don't think there's enough value in that. It has the inconveniences of needing to dock/undock your phone plus all of the hassle of having to maintain 2 separate sets of apps, settings, and state.

People usually don't just want several views to the phone to be in sync (it really should), but also want different devices to be in sync. The second feature has much more demand and the current approach is syncing through cloud. Which happens to solve the first issue as well (at least for data).
I was reading some reviews of Microsoft's Continuum, and it seems like something I've wanted for years now. I don't know if I want to jump back into the Microsoft camp, but having a seamless transition from mobile to desktop would be really cool.
That is pretty strange considering it would be trivial to set up an android emulator in the pc app and run everything the phone can.
This looks like what Ubuntu had set out to do several years ago but never delivered on. The screenshots seem to be showing actual desktop Linux applications, so I guess there's an X (or Wayland) server being fired up, which is pretty sweet; I dig the idea of having access to "real" tools without having my own PC or booting to USB.

Oddly though, despite this being a distribution of Linux and Android, it seems like it's aiming for a commercial/closed-source release. I wonder how that's going to work?

This looks like what Ubuntu had set out to do several years ago but never delivered on.

Also looks like something that OQO had in mind over a decade and a half ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO

> This looks like what Ubuntu had set out to do several years ago but never delivered on.

Ubuntu did not deliver their 'Convergence' yet, but apparently they're working hard to do it. This was on HN just yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11034516

Android is Apache licensed, so they don't have to release any Android code that they modify. The kernel is GPL2, so they would have to release any kernel changes, if they made any. The Debian distribution they use can be unmodified, probably. So everything they actually create can be in proprietary-land.
Here is a similar product from Motorola several years ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Android-Phone/dp/B00...

And there's a laptop dock sold separately

http://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Motorola-Retail-Packaging/dp...

I had the phone but had never used the dock. Not sure about the experience, but it's a cool idea to me.

I had the Atrix , stiil have, is running great ( but slow ) with the lapdock.

Idea is absolutelly great, HW reall OK, but in software was never completly done. It felt like was more like a PoC.

I was pretty dissapointed by Motorola not following this idea. It was kind of ahead of time.

Like others commented, very few phones have a HDMI interface.

What type of user would want this?

It could be interesting in a school setting or maybe in the developing world. However, the product seems a bit paradoxical: use your phone as your main/only device, but meanwhile, you have a monitor available to use.

Most people who only own phones probably don't own monitors, right? A mini projector seems more inline with the "mobile only" use case since monitors aren't portable.

My guess is that one-day, everybody. Today, not so much.

What is the difference between your laptop, desktop and phone? Mostly it's screen resolution and the apps that run on them.

I'm sure at one point somebody was asking "why would I want to plug my laptop into a monitor?"

Eventually, the technology disappears and it just becomes different I/O.

All your apps, all your contacts, all your content in one place. No matter what monitor you sit in front of, it is YOUR computer. Not signing in under this account or that account, it just goes with you.

I believe the technology still has a way to go. This is for early adopters now.

Actually I developed a business case for a Telco for this three years ago, and there is a market. We hit a technical problem and could not sell it worldwide; but it worked for some countries.

The mini projector didn't worked. Expensive. Hard to carry from one place to another and it needed lots of time to setup.

When we demoed the desktop-in-your-pocket and the user reception was great. Women loved it (they already carry a lot of stuff in their bags, plus a laptop).

Remember: If do something that improves people lives, there's a market. If you improve women lives, be sure there's a market.

School setting is a good example+. I think the benefit is hooking up a keyboard in addition to the monitor. Mini projector would certainly be cool but I think existing monitors are more realistic. Some stuff is hard on phones (or maybe I'm too old). I'm thinking of programming classes, history classes with maps etc. Libraries/open terminals that let you plug in your phone could also be interesting.

I'm also imagining someone like my parents. They prefer a bigish monitor for most tasks but those tasks are relatively straightforward. Mail, Office stuff etc. Currently they have a cheap Linux box for that, this could be removed and a bit of maintenance would go away.

+Assuming for arguments sake a setting in which most kids are expected to own a cell phones.

Maybe a TV set would work too?

I know, the target was initially a monitor, but everyone has a HDMI enabled TV ( ok, unless it lived under a rock in the last 5 years ).

I like this idea, but the pedant in me is annoyed that they chose an apple LED Cinema/Thunderbolt Display lookalike for their promo images.

This display is one of the few mainstream monitors one can not just plug an HDMI cable into.

It is easy to go MiniDP/DP/Thunderbolt -> HDMI but not the other way around.

Using anything but a display port source on it requires an expensive adapter.

Download and try: http://maruos.com/#/hardware
So... I know not a lot of people know about this but... Microsoft is already doing this really, really well. And their execution of it, while early, is at least competitive with most Ubuntu mobile efforts I've seen.

I mean, I know there is an open source argument and I get that, but... Continuum is a really neat feature and if nothing else deserves at least a little recognition).

What cable do I buy to connect my Nexus 5 to an HDMI port? I feel that should be mentioned on the website. Will this do it:

http://www.amazon.com/Fosmon-Slimport-Micro-Female-Adapter/d...

About damn time this happened. I've been wanting to have my users ditch PC's for a while. Getting them to Dock a phone into a keyboard/monitor will make my life tons easier.

Anyone know if you can wipe debian and stick another distro on it? I have a fetish for gentoo, but chromiumOS would be cool too.

Does it actually exist?
I was thinking about this the other day. Sure Maru is a version of Microsoft continuum for android, but I wish there was a different implementation of this concept.

I wish that when I plug in my Android to my computer using a usb cable, I get a popup on my computer for the desktop version of the Android operating system.

Had MS implemented this, Continuum would have been far more relevant. Because as of now, you need far too much new hardware to make it work. Maru is also the same thing.

This is a great idea to be exploring even though, as a developer, I think this just some fancy tech that has almost no use. Like already noted in a another comment, if you are on the go the phone can't replace a laptop.

However, it becomes more exciting to experiment different things with a versatile phone running Maru or something similar.

What would really like to see are tablets running non-Android linux, and iPads with OSX instead of iOS.

Regular compute-heavy desktop/server software is generally unsuited to mobile execution. Power efficiency and are speed greatly improved by offloading to GPUs. If one of these projects does take off at some point, I wouldn't be surprised to see a greater portion of the FOSS software stack being adapted for GPU-based execution.
Am I the only one that thinks the real solution may be to divorce the data itself from the device? I'm not saying make it all remote terminal but at least make the contents (data) the thing which is in a fully standardized format that can be easily shared and synced.
personally, i'd rather see it combined with something like the casetop. basically, an all-in-one monitor, keyboard, and battery charger.

http://livi-design.ca/

...but, with much better industrial design.

I like the idea of one personal computer, so as not to have to deal with syncing, but for this to work for me they'd need to offer a laptop dock, since I don't even have a desk at home to put a monitor on, not to mention the monitor itself!
The problem is the absolute disconnect between the 'desktop' and 'phone' parts. Maybe if this was more akin to Remix OS in that it used tablet apps, it could have been a better experience.
Ok, can someone please explain to me how I connect an hdmi monitor to my phone? Because they sort of glossed over that part where no phone I've ever seen has an hdmi connector.
Doesn't Ubuntu Mobile do this? Though I suppose it's app environment on the mobile side of things leaves much to be desired.
Can you charge while plugged in to a monitor?
Isn't this the same concept as Microsoft's Continuum?

As it's been noted, there are a handful of other projects like this, so I don't mean to say it isn't special. But a big criticism for Continuum is that it's practically not very useful...when are you ever going to have your phone, monitor, and keyboard available but not a laptop?

What's a practical use for these things?

Is this closed source?
Yeah but why would I switch over to this? I don't understand what it gives me that I don't already have. Either I'm an idiot or...
Is there anything like it for iOS?